Four pudus, the world’s smallest species of deer, made their debut Sunday at Saitama Children's Zoo in a first for Japan.
The pudu, a native of southern Chile and parts of Argentina, is about 80 cm in length and weighs only 9 kg. Although the deer is listed as an endangered species, the children’s zoo was given the pudus by Santiago Metropolitan Park in the Chilean capital after gaining permission to import them for the purpose of academic study, the zoo’s operator said.
Two 2-year-old male pudus and two female pudus — a 2-year-old and 1-year-old — showed their faces among bushes in their enclosure at the zoo.